Muscle Milk AMR forced to miss out on qualifying

Saturday, September 03, 2011



With an ever-changing schedule on the first day of action at the Baltimore Grand Prix, Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing was anxious to get on track when practice got underway in mid-afternoon, but unfortunately for the Pickett Racing crew, an electrical issue sidelined the team during practice and also forced them out of qualifying.

When the green flag finally fell on the one-hour practice session, Klaus Graf was the first one to take to the track but his outing was short lived when all the electrical power went out on his Aston Martin LMP1 car coming out of Turn 3.

After the car was towed back to pit lane the team assessed the problem but had to wait until the end of the session to exit pit lane and return to their paddock area to further diagnose the issue.

Although the team tried its hardest to make it back out for the qualifying session later that day, the amount of work to repair the electrical wiring loom is too time consuming and could not be done before the start of qualifying.

After starting on pole position at the last event at Road America, the Muscle Milk team will have to start from the back of the field on the streets of Baltimore once they have accomplished the difficult task of repairing the wiring loom.

The challenge will be even greater for the pair of Klaus Graf and Romain Dumas as both drivers still have not completed a lap of the 2.04-mile circuit and additionally, Dumas still has to take his first laps aboard the Aston Martin.

If the schedule remains according to plan, the Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing team is looking to be back on track Saturday morning for a 20-minute warm-up at 10:25 am before the two-hour race later that day at 4:30 pm ET.

The race will be streamed live on ESPN3.com starting at 4:15 pm ET and will be broadcast on tape-delay, Sunday, September 4, 2011 at 4:00 pm ET.


MUSCLE MILK QUOTES

Klaus Graf, co-driver Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing
"It's a big task for the drivers and a big task for the team but we're going to need all of our experience to get up to speed as quickly as possible. We hope to get some laps in a street car prior to it and then we'll just have to be careful and be smart and just go step by step. The number one priority right now is to make the race, then it will be about finishing the race and everything after that it's a bonus. At that point you forget about the championship situation and you make the best of it."
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